Thursday, September 29, 2011

day 111: you must be this tall to ride

UUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

A lot of volunteers have told me that time spent in the PC is much like a roller coaster- extreme ups and downs that happen within moments of each other, a success followed by a disaster followed quickly by another success and then BOOM disaster.

I definitely bought a ticket and this ride is more than advertised.

So far, I haven't found myself crying in a corner anywhere, although I have said (out loud) "voy a llorar en una esquina..." to my host sister, who responded with laughter. She mocks my pain. But yes, it was in jest.

Well, let me try to take you on this roller coaster of events that have been happening to me recently.

The last time I blogged was about my regional meeting. That was a definite up. I had a great time, got to meet the amazing volunteers of La Libertad, and learned a bit more about what we've been up to in our respective sites (which, by the way, is mind blowingly amazing. I can only hope that I can pull off something half as good as these volunteers. Seriously.)

Then Monday, I went to the municipality to get money for this camp that the other volunteer wanted to do for the weekend. I got there, only to find out that they wouldn't have the money for me until Thursday, the day before the event. Still, no big deal, I'm just super excited that the municipality is actually supporting me for an event, even if it's not mine.

Tuesday, I'm running around with the other volunteer, visiting schools around Pacasmayo and getting to meet other directors. I'm actually having a great time and I have plans to include Pacasmayo as part of my work, simply because there isn't a volunteer there and the people there are interested in receiving my help. So huzzah for that!

Wednesday, I'm supposed to meet up with the kids from San Pedro who are planning on going to this camping trip. They're all friends of my sister and here's where things start heading south. The night before, I make plans to meet everyone at 1pm. I inform my host sister, who I should have known was not paying attention because she was really really busy taking MySpace-esque photos of herself to post on facebook.

I should mention, that I really hate it when teenagers act like teenagers. Teenagers are really annoying.

Anyway, I inform her to please let her friends know. "Yea yea yea, ok ok ok." No one shows up at 1pm because that wonderful, responsible sister of mine has informed NO ONE. I show up, and she runs around and grabs as many of the kids who happen to still be around. Then my host sister informs me that one of the kids who wants to go does not have any family living with him. They are all in Lima for some reason (health related) and he doesn't have anyone who can sign his permission slip. I, however, let them know that as long as I can speak with the person who is acting as his guardian, it should be fine. We make plans for their parents to meet me in a designated place at 4pm later that afternoon.

NO ONE SHOWS UP.

My host sister is at a meeting. One boy that I know shows up to get permission, and that's because this kid is awesome and he's in one of my youth groups. I wait for AN HOUR for someone else to show, and nothing.

*&^%$#$%^&^FTF%$%#$%^RFCXE%^ fricken hell.

I go home, find my host sis and ask her WTF to which she responds, "yea, they all have work. But they'll come tomorrow so don't invite anyone else! They'll be here tomorrow!" So, with doubt written all over my face, I agree to wait.

No need.

I get a phone call about an hour later, telling me that the camp is cancelled. We couldn't get tents. After all of that, no camp. uuuuuuuuuuuuuuurggghhhhhhhhh. I walk upstairs and let my sister know, who just looks at me with a face that says, "WHAT?? NOOOOOOOOOOO!" and she's disappointed. I call, facebook, text the one other kid who showed up with his mom to inform him about the situation, who I'm most apologetic to because he actually DID everything I asked them to do... definite down.

Today, I went to the municipality to inform them of the no-camp situation and asked them to pleaasseeee hold on to the cash until we get this camp actually going. Thankfully, the man at the desk said alright but I should write up another solicitude to give to them. I thanked them and left to go to my meeting at a school. I met my socio to talk to him about getting students to do my survey and huzzah! He was super supportive! We hashed out how many copies of each I would need and I'll be going tomorrow morning to talk to the classes, pass out the surveys, and hopefully get some results from this school! Then some professors invited me to return that afternoon to celebrate the school anniversary, to which I gladly agreed.

Then I got home for lunch and uuuggghhhh... sometimes it sucks living with a socio. My host sister and host mom are ragging on me about teaching at their school. First of all, I don't want to teach English for the next 2 years of my life. Secondly, I'm worried about forming ties with only one school. I want to work for this community, not for just one specific school, and teaching in one will do that. Third, I'm not a teacher. I don't have any degree or anything for it. I refuse to teach in a classroom as a teacher. I will help a teacher, but do not wish to become one. Fourth, I already have plans to teach english two days a week in another place, for ALL students who wish to learn it. I try to explain this, and I KNOW I'm being clear about this, because I repeat myself at least 20 times and my host dad rephrases it and repeats it and STILL neither of them are listening.

There are days when I just want to flip a table over.

Now, I can't decide if the host mom is upset at me because I don't want to teach at this damn school, or if she still doesn't get it (which I really can't understand. What part of "NO" doesn't translate over into spanish?! It's the same word!!!)

I think the next time PC has a volunteer living with a host family, they should REALLY not put them with a socio. It's like I'm working 24 hours a day without break. I have this vague feeling that something's going to snap. What's worse? I can't move out. If I do, I don't just lose a host family- I lose one of the biggest connections I have to the municipality, to the schools, to basically all of my work. Damn it.

I need this gym to be freakin open someday. Or else my next work out will be entitled, "breaking down doors" and will include a cardio portion where I sprint and fling my body at the gym door, and then proceed to kick at it repeatedly.

So yea, that was a down.

And then I went to the anniversary of the school I was at. It was interesting, watching them form a parade and march around the area, return to the school, and then have a party where various students performed random things. I don't really know many of them just yet, so I just sort of sat around and observed. I left earlier, just because it got way too cold, and walked back home.

Now I'm holed up in my room and I just don't want to go out. My nerves are shot this week, but there's still a crap ton of things that I need to do. Bleh.

So here's to hoping tomorrow will be better. I'll be going back to the school to do my surveys, and I'll be helping teach at another school (the one my host mom and sis were annoying me about). Maybe I will just end up helping in both of these schools, plus my workshops outside of these classes. I just need to make sure that they understand that I won't be doing this for the next 2 years of my life. Maybe a month. We'll see how that goes.

Seriously though. I need some time away from work, which doesn't happen unless I'm in Trujillo and that only comes once a month.

I just might explode.

Boom.






Sunday, September 25, 2011

day 107: i've never had a sandwich from pacasmayo

Hola damas and caballeros

So I just got back from my first ever regional meeting! yaaay~
Basically, a meeting is held once a month for all the volunteers to discuss things that need discussing. It's not mandatory, but it was nice to see lots of other volunteers, especially those I had never met before. We went afterwards and had fun at a club, dancing and having fun. Also, an apple for breakfast, a diet coke and wafer cookies for lunch, and a bottle of riesling for dinner with a peach cocktail as dessert is NOT a healthy diet. It does, however, make for a rather interesting night... :)

It was, anyway, a seriously nice way to recharge my batteries. I love Perú. I really do. But sometimes, it takes a lot out of me. I had time to run to the store and buy a few necessities (and yes, I do consider a jar of peanut butter and a box of froot loops part of my necessities. I also got Pringles. Shush.) but didn't have time to go visit the music stores and get myself a guitar.

Why?

Because a few volunteers and I wanted to watch some football. I'm not a huge football fan, predominately because I just don't understand it. Rugby is so much better. Still, I appreciate the fans it collects and the general atmosphere that tends to accompany games. We were going to watch it back where my site is, so we got into the bus to take the 2 hour trip back aaannnddd....

We found that the electricity was turned off for the next few hours in the entire city.
Errr... yea.

So football didn't happen, and I'd been craving a sandwich since the day before. I've never eaten in Pacasmayo, however, and didn't know what to do. I walked into a restaurant and stood there for like a minute, unsure of how to proceed. Seriously. I seated myself but wasn't acknowledged so I thought, maybe I should just go up and order something, but go up where? There were waiter walking around and doling out food, but I had no idea who I could talk to. Then I heard a car calling out my destination, so I thought... screw it, and left. I will return again (probably when I'm not burdened with a bag and a suitcase of stuff) and I swear, I will have that sandwich! So anyway, I went back to my house, unpacked my things, and got some work done. I finally gave in and just made myself a handmade agenda. Finding one with enough space for me to write in, but not be a burden to carry around just got to be work that I didn't want to do.

Now I'm trying to figure my next month out, just cause I'm starting to realize that I have more than 1 activity planned for the same day, same hour. 'Cause I'm an idiot and agreed to it. I also have these random notes that I would jot down to remind myself, but the notes no longer make sense.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHoooooot. That does not bode well.

Anyway, this week I'm going to be talking to the directors of a few schools to pass out my surveys (which I still haven't printed yet. Printing costs are too extreme, I need to rework that) and I'll be helping another volunteer who lives in my province with his project. There're a couple of things I'll just be running around, trying to figure out how to do this week, but until then... I'm going to open up my box of froot loops, have a handful, and then go to bed. I'm exhausted but ready to take on this week! Yay!

Here's to hoping things go well this week... because if they don't, you might want to ignore this blog for a few days because it's going to be ranting and raving. But hopefully not!

Love and Peace.

Friday, September 23, 2011

day 105: brain melting

Woooo... Sup damas and caballeros,
So, yup. I don't even know what to say. There's so much going on in my brain right now that there's no telling where things start and where things end.

I seriously need an agenda. I've been double booking things and it's not looking good.

Whatevs. So I finally went to talk to the health post. It took me a month, but I decided that was long enough. Yaeel (the volunteer who was here before me) left me with a set of forearm crutches to donate and armed with that as an excuse to visit, I marched in. I asked the pharmacy where I could find one of the nurses, the only name I recalled from when I had visited during site visit. Thankfully, she was there and remembered me. I explained that I was there to see if they would accept the donation (they would) and got to talking with the director. She then explained that right next door was another office that does... something. I'm still not sure. In any case, I went and saw a woman that I had actually met before. She was super excited to see me and we got to talking. After I introduced myself to everyone and we talked for about an hour or two, I left to go find that gym.

THAT ELUSIVE GYM!!!

I found it but it wasn't open. Le Sigh. Later that night, I was told that my host mom is actually friends with the woman who owns it, so I asked her to please let the woman know that I would like to work out, so if she could open the doors at some point and let me know when, that would be awesome.

Anyway, I went back today to see this lady and BOOM, got a few things rolling.
Starting in October, I'm going to be teaching English. There's this really nice space hidden inside the office. This is actually true of most of my site. The exteriors all look exactly the same- painted cement and a door. However, get invited to step inside and woooooaaahhh. There's a lot of stuff happening inside.

The space I have been invited to use can seat about 40 people comfortably, another 40 more in the kitchen area, and there's an open space that I can use for dinámicas and things. I'll be leading two classes a week, one for younger kids and one for older adolescents. I'm also going to be using this space for my hopefully one day rejoined youth group (they were supposed to meet me today, but today's día de la juventud and they were all busy dancing and partying at their schools so they didn't show up... womp womp).

Finally, I'm going to see if there's any interest in forming a theater group as well as starting an escuela de padres. I'll be handing out surveys next week to assess all of this, and hopefully I get enough responses to have something mildly substantial to use.

Short update, just because I'm about to run out again. I went to one school this morning to celebrate the day, and watched the teachers be amazing and perform small funny skits for their kids. I had to leave early to go meet the women in the health post, and later went to my lil sis' school for more celebrations. There's a celebration happening for all of the people of my site tonight, in the plaza de armas. I gotta go get ready for it too. I do a lot of celebrating here. Sometimes I wonder if calling this "integration into the community" is really true, cause it just feels like I'm spending a lot of time having fun. I also am slowly getting over my fear of dancing in public, because I think being embarrassed is a stupid emotion.

So screw it. I'll just have to get over myself and realize, yea I can't dance but honestly, no one cares except for me. A shot of liquid courage would really help, I suppose, but it wouldn't solve my problem. Plus, I'm wondering if getting alcohol banned from the schools could be a possible project of mine so I should teach by example. Who knows!

So cheers everyone, and as always-
Love and Peace.

Monday, September 19, 2011

day 101: chocolotada, pasaporte and solicitudes

So first of all-
Hyun Mi Unni: OMG, totally. What can I say, I'm Korean. Peruvian food is amazing, but I'll take kimchi with it please! Hehehe ~

and secondly,

What up, damas y caballeros?
Hope all y'all are being awesome out there because it's time for me to tell you what's happening here lately.
Let's start off with the thing that's sticking in my mind, an event that happened not too long ago. It was the day before the official anniversary date of one of the colegios here and a chocolotada was being held at the school.


Usually, a chocolotada is held around christmas time. Students and teachers show up to a place (i.e. the school) and get free hot chocolate and sandwiches. They share these in the classroom and then go outside, to the open space to party it up. There's a stage, a band, live music and lots of dancing.

Sounds great, huh?

Yea, well, it probably would have been were it not for all the underage drinking and smoking.

Yea. I was standing around and watching kids, mere babies really, trying to enjoy alcohol and running around with lit cigarettes dangling from their lips.

What. The. Eff.

Mind, there were a greater number of students who were not partaking in the drug abuse, but I was shocked because there were tons of adults around who were just watching all of this happen and not saying anything. Many of these adults were teachers from the school.

I left, disgusted, after apologizing to my sister because she wanted to stay and I could not stand being there.

Thankfully, the day after, my host dad was eating breakfast with me and the other 2 kids and he mentioned how awful that even had been, due to the smoking and drinking. There is talk about precautions being made, and the director will be meeting with the professors to discuss what had happened.

Hurrah for adults who care. Too bad it was the day after all of this had gone down, and not during. Still, it's better than nothing and my heart feels better because at least something is going to be done (hopefully).

In other news, I'm getting the ball rolling on the world map!
The world map is sort of like Peace Corps' mark in every site. It's a good way to get myself better known in the community, plus it's fun. I'm taking this opportunity to teach a group of youth I have about different cultures in the world. Sadly, geography is no longer taught in the schools and when I gave my kids a map and asked them to identify a few places, they could only name Peru, Chile and Brazil (they got the U.S. after some discussion). However, they did not know the names of the oceans or any part of the world outside of their own. Last Saturday, I had them all learn about passports. They then created their own and I took a picture of each of them to print and post onto each of their "passports."

It was really interesting to see how much verguenza (or embarrassment/shame) they felt when I told them we'd be taking their pictures. It took almost 30 minutes for all of them to finally gather enough courage to smile for the camera, and that was after much prodding and poking done by the other students.

I'm going to be using these passports as a way to measure how many of the next few charlas they show up for, but what I'm going to be doing is teaching them more about the world: the cultures, the locations, the geography, and so forth.

Hopefully it's fun and they enjoy it.

I'm also going to be including art lessons, in prep for the mural. It's exciting to know that things are starting to move forward and I'm getting something done!

Speaking of getting things done, I still have to work on my community diagnostic. I sent the alcalde my first solicitude for a mini camp VALOR that another volunteer is doing. We're hoping that the muni here can help us cause we're a bit strapped for cash, and I'll be talking to the alcalde tomorrow morning. I have made plans to talk to directors of various schools next week, in which I will be presenting my surveys and asking if I can have permission to pass them out to the students for their parents to complete and return to me. So far, this will only be happening in 3 of the schools that I know of, predominately because I still haven't figured out how to get into the other schools. Still, I think that'll do for now.

I've also talked to some english teachers who are very enthusiastic and have asked me a number of times if I have time to just talk to them so they can practice speaking in english. I mentioned my idea of forming a club for english teachers and there definitely seems to be enough interest that this may well definitely become a reality. I don't know where we'll have it, when we'll have it, or if anyone else outside of my site wants to join, but that's something to think about for another time.

Oh, and on a final note, I've decided to stop eating rice, noodles and bread. Talked to my host mom and it's not a problem, thank goodness. We'll see how this goes! And tomorrow I'm going to go running with my host sis! After weeks of her talking and talking and talking about how she's so going to join me, she finally is (because there's no school tomorrow, and no one knows why. Not even the teachers. My host dad is a prof at the school and he didn't even know that there was no school. Jebus.)

My only goal for tomorrow is to find the gym! Woo!
Now, I'm going to go boil me some water and maybe eat a spoonful of peanut butter before I got study some more español. That or finish reading book 1 of Lord of the Rings, which is much slower than the movie  and though the details are interesting, I'm hoping the pace picks up by book 2.

Love and Peace.


Thursday, September 15, 2011

day 97: KOREANS IN PERÚ!?

This beach holds the record for the longest wave going left to right in the world.
Also, surfing is on my list of things to learn while in Perú.

Yup, that's right kids, there are Koreans in Perú.
Now, this isn't shocking. I am well aware of the Asian population that exists in Perú: Chinese, Japanese, Thai, you name it and you'll probably find it. What's exciting to me is that these Koreans live within visiting distance from me. And they have Korean food with them.

I didn't realize how much I missed Korean food.

The local priest in my community had mentioned to me that there were 2 other Korean priests located not too far away. He invited me to go meet them this week, to which I gladly agreed. I show up at the church at 8:30am, as he asked, and was delighted to see that when I showed up at 8:30am, on the dot, he was outside waiting for me.

I hate hora peruana. It's a cultural thing, I understand, but the concept of everything running late to accommodate for everyone being late drives me mad. I was always that kid who showed up early to things. The sense of fear that has been instilled in me, and that fluttery nervousness in my stomach when it feels like I'll only be on time, and not early, is part of my very core. So imagine me now living in a place that runs on Peruvian hour. An example of this? The other day, there was a meeting with the leadership club at one of the schools. The teacher told me to get there at 10. Knowing very well that it would start later, I showed up at 9:55 to the room she had told me they would be meeting in. Turns out, there's a text fair happening that day, showcasing the many forms of literature that exist, happening in that room, so we're next door.

It's a ferria! There are lots of ferrias happening, at least once a week
(depending on the school, I guess)
An hour later, a few of the kids from the leadership club have been rounded up. Unfortunately, the teacher also has another meeting and is running back and forth between that and trying to find more of the kids. Classes have once again begun, and many of the teachers are refusing to let the kids be excused, rightly so. The kids who are there are preparing what they had been told to prepare from last week. Another 30 minutes later, the professors show up. It is now 11:30 and the meeting is about to start. Their first matter for discussion is when to hold meetings so that everyone can join. Another 30 minutes later, it is decided that they shall meet on Tuesdays, except the professor has a meeting and now must leave. The second professor starts a discussion on why they're doing the project in the first place. It is now noon and with apologies, I excuse myself because I need to go home and prepare for my second meeting. What... the.... heck... End rant.

So the father was waiting for me, we get into his car and speed off!

Lemme tell you, it only takes 15 minutes to get to this place because the father drives at roughly 95mph the entire way there.

Finally we get there, I meet the first father and he's wonderfully pleasant and invites me to lunch: kimchi jjigae! he says. It's not great, but if you'd like some Korean food...

YES PLEASE.

He leaves to prepare for morning mass and the father and I decide to drive over to the next site, about 5 or 10 min. away to see the other priest.

The other priest lives 1 min. from the beach. He lives in a very touristic part, a beach that is well known for its awesome waves and caters to surfer during the summer time here. There are tons of hotels, including a 4 story hotel that costs about $200/night to stay in... Oof.

The beach here is known for being the location of the longest wave you can find in the world. The wave starts on the left and a surfer can ride it about 2km or so down the coast, towards the pier. It's crazy beautiful, and I am making plans to go visit it during surfing season (when the waves are larger).


The plaza has this gorgeous sculpture on it.
Wow.
BEACH!

That man over there? Fishing for mariscos (seafood)
like shellfish and the like. You can't see it here, but there are
big crab things crawling around too. Or at least I think they're crabs....
I couldn't really see them from where I was. Maybe I just
made all of that up in my head...
Anyway, we check out the beach and then all of his head back to the first place with the first father. We park, walk into the door and...

... oh the scent of kimchi jjigae. Amazing.

Your mouth started watering, didn't it?
It probably means you're Korean.
So yes, I devoured 2 bowls of that. And then as I was about to leave, Father Park looks at me and asks, "do you have gochujang at your place? Would you like one?"

To which I replied by asking, "seriously!?" and he smiles and walks over, pulls open this box and hands me not only a big thing of gochujang (red pepper paste for those of you who don't know what that is), but also 5 packages of ramen.

"Enjoy!"

om nom nom nom noooommm!
We left with me making plans in my head to find a day when I'm free so that I can return and see these 2 wonderful people once more. When we got back to my site, the father grabbed one of the ramen to try for himself, and I'm thinking of having a Korean lunch with my fam sometime soon with the other 4. It's gonna be totally awesome.

That's all for now!
Hope you are all well, and if you have access to some Korean food, please go and enjoy it. And then go write me a letter about it and send it to me. My address is on the side bar :P

Love and Peace.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

day 95: suddenly busy...?

I don't know when this happened, but I am busy.

What?

After the past 3 weeks of lounging around, wondering why I was still sitting around my room doing nothing, and hoping that someone would invite me to something, I've found myself slowly packing my schedule with random activities.

Careful what you wish for, amiright?

I mean, I'm not doing anything that is relevant and important. Still, it's something! This also means that I am getting into a bad bad habit of agreeing to do things without knowing what my schedule actually looks like... predominately because I do not have an agenda.

Derp derp.

Today, however, I did get to do one of those awesome cultural things-
ferria de gastronómica en un colegio.



Basically, every classroom cooks up a dish and then sells it. That's all. I, of course, did my best to taste everything and ended up spending a wee bit and not being able to eat lunch at my house afterwards from being crazy full. I had ají de gallina, ceviche, pastel de papas, and papa rellena. Seriously.

(I wish my internet were faster, but it takes about 5 minutes to post one picture and all the pics I wanted to post here were just food porn shots... not too important, but i'll try to post some other day)


On another note, here's a list of things I must do this week... partly to give you a taste, predominately to help get my brain in order:

1. Get the solicitude for the leadership camp to the alcalde and get it signed (hopefully)
2. Write up the syllabus for the Saturday youth group (we also need a name for ourselves)
3. Write up a survey for parents, including instructions to the professors.
4. Go to the health post! Seriously! What is up with that? Why have I still not gone??
5. Get the old group from JAEL together
6. Talk to the directors, see if I can get into that other school using new connection from today (profe of K-)
7. Teaching English tomorrow morning to my club, before 10am. Need to call my students about that.
8. Have a meeting with the leadership clubs in 2 of my site schools tomorrow, 10 am and 1:30pm
9. Have a meeting with the father at the church this Thursday at 8:30am, will take all day.
10. Organize and write up the presentation for the charla for parents this Friday.
11. Breathe.


Part of me feels like I'm working really hard on stuff that is not on my site... I don't know if that's ok, since I feel like I should really focus my time on where I am, but word is spreading that I'm around and other schools are taking advantage of my time here by coming to me. The schools around me... not so much... so I guess I'll go where I'm wanted for now, and work my way around here little by little~


Still, I think one of my big dream projects (those grandiose ideas that you get when you feel like you're on top the world, absolutely invincible, and capable of anything and everything. Basically, the life I lead in my overly inflated, fairly egotistical head) will be to form a youth junta (like a board, with the president and vice prez and all that) with those who live in the area, so that we can coordinate activities and projects all together, in a nice orderly fashion.

Because if there's one thing I love, it's efficiency and order... Two things that have lately been lacking in my life...

There are a few work things in the way... but nothing gets
in between me and dreamlandia (it's where i take stress
and then proceed to smother it with fluffy pillows and
blankets until it stops struggling against me)
Ah well, gotta run! I need to prepare for my english club tomorrow morning and hopefully squeeze in a workout before I study a little big of spanish and go to bed!

SLEEP! GLORIOUS SLEEP!


Miss you all, yes I'm doing alright, please don't worry <3

Love and Peace.





P.S. Sending texts here means you pay for each text. However, you can send a text asking the person receiving it to pay for it. The text you get will say "it's super urgent! are you willing to pay for it!?" tricking me into going, omg! yes, of course! only to find it's a kid saying, "yes, i got your message, thanks."

..... What the heck. Kids, I know you are excited that I am willing to text you, but I ain't gonna pay for you to send me silly messages... call me. You can call me FOR FREE because I'm paying to have this RPM. Why won't you use it!? What's the point!? Dunno what else to say, except I won't be accepting any of these collect texts and I really hope it is not urgent, because if you send me a text using your tongue because your arms have been chopped off by local pirates, but it's one of these stupid collect texts... Well, you're dumb because it's still faster to call me and you're losing a lot of blood, and you should probably be calling the hospital or the police or something before me. I'm flattered though.

That is all.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

day 93: a day of remembrance

On this day, 10 years ago, the Twin Towers and the lives of many came crashing down. The people of the United States found themselves united under tragedy, and we are still picking up the pieces today. Sadly, this unity has also resulted in a number of unwarranted fears and racist ideas as people frantically found a scapegoat that could provide an outlet for anxiety. Still, we march, hopefully forward, remembering the lives that were lost, the lives that were saved, and the brave men and women who put their own lives on the line to save those in need.

I just wanted to take a moment to remember what happened on September 11, 2001, because being in Perú means that many times, I'm very disconnected with what's happening back in the states. Still, I remember how horrible this day was, and how proud I am today to be a U.S. citizen. I only hope that from tragedy, we gain knowledge and understanding that transcends fear and hate. As a Peace Corps volunteer, one of my duties is intercultural exchange- to share with my site, the culture of the U.S. and to share with the states, the culture of Perú. Both are amazing and wonderful and rich in their own ways, and both have ideas about the other that are at times, spot on, faulty, and/or absolutely wrong.

So it's kind of a blast when I get to just chill out with some of the kids I know from around the area, and we get to talk about nothing. I'm not there to educate, I'm not there to explain myself, I'm there to just BE. Once you realize that people are people, it doesn't matter the culture or the location, that the same things make you laugh, the same things fill you with fear or shame, well... at that point, you sort of just accept it all.

Yesterday, I had lunch with a bunch of youth. Some were from my site, others were not. I knew most of them and was introduced to those I did not. We went shopping for ingredients with one of the girl's mom and returned ready to cook. Two girls and I went back to my house to boil and peels potatoes for a plate called "huancaina" which is a bed of lettuce, potatoes, an egg and a type of spicy, creamy sauce.


After that, we went back to the house doing the main dish (chicken and noodles) and ate tons and tons and TONS of food!

Unfortunately, one kid dropped a plate of his food. The culprit is the kid in purple. The hand is my sister's, who got cut while trying to pick up the pieces... such is life.



So it was just one of those days. I had a youth group afterwards with kids from the church, and I'm going to be doing the world map project with them. Turns out, their geography is super weak and they couldn't tell me where Canada or China were. Many pointed to the United States and asked me if that was India. This is  a problem that I can help with! I asked them to bring some friends, because I want to change this religious group to a social group. This projects means I'm going to be writing solicitudes to the municipality and calling on some art professors to get involved and help me out, so that'll be interesting. 

I have yet to start, however, on my community diagnostic. Week 4 is rearing to start, which means i have about 2 months to collect information and write it all up. I really do want to do a survey with all the kids and their parents in the schools, but I have yet figured out how to get into a few of the colegios around here. Usually I need a connection on the inside, because last time I went to one of the schools, I was told to write up a solicitude asking to speak with the director. Unfortunately, my brain got up on its high horse and went, "sorry, I'm not here to ask you to help me. I was just wondering if you wanted my expertise but it seems like you don't so I'm gonna go and work with all these other schools that want me involved instead. K thnx baii."

Gotta fix my attitude, I suppose. 

In other news, I was just in my first parade today! It's nothing much, a lot of volunteers get asked to walk in parades, go on radio or local t.v. shows and the like because we're new and u.s.american. I was asked to walk and my immediate response was, "ah! no no no no nooooo, I'm sorry, I really can't! There are hundreds of people watching this, plus at least 5 different local t.v. channels out there filming." Then I was asked again by about 4 other people, who proceeded to get my sister and her friends involved, which meant I caved like a new born's soft spot. Sorry, that joke was in pretty poor taste but the first thing that popped into my head...

So what was I marching for? Promoción 1978. I'm not entirely sure what a promoción is, but  they were dressed in either camouflage or a black shirt with a bright yellow jolly roger (except with a sword instead of bones going through it) on it. So either they're military... or pirates. 

They gave me a green shirt and then asked if it would be alright if they painted my face. 
"Just a little bit," they said. I responded, "if you're going to paint my face, you might as well paint all of it" to the cheers of everyone in the drinking circle. One of the men took out a circular can and proceeded to draw lines down my face. This circular can appears to be shoe polish. Did I just put shoe polish on my face?? Twenty minutes later, it stings. Yes, I definitely let them paint shoe polish on my face. 

Still, I had a blast and considering a number of people in this town now know me, including the alcalde, marching down the short way to their smiles and cheers was totally worth it! Afterwards, I returned to the restaurant to wash off the paint and was gifted the following: that shirt I'm wearing in the photo, a Pilsen (peruvian beer brand) hat, and a really pretty necklace made of rocks, which I was told was kind of expensive, good luck, and representative of a lot of different cultures and traditions that exist in Perú. I didn't at first understand that they were gifts, until I was told repeatedly that I must keep them and remember all of them, and that if I ever wanted to know more about this town, I shouldn't hesitate to call them up and say hello! The entire time I kept trying to say, "I can't accept this! It's too much!" but couldn't quite figure out how to portray it all and rephrase it, and ended up just saying thank you a whole bunch of times... So yea, I'll probably be wearing that necklace for as long as possible...


So yea, I started off kind of seriously and ended kind of ridiculously, but it is what it is! Thanks for reading all of that update on my life :P Keep writing me letters! I'm using them as wall decorations and so far, I have 3 beautiful, wonderful, smile inducing letters from the states adorning my wall. I miss all of you tons! Here's to having been in Perú for 3 months, and only having a little over 23 left <3 

Con cariño,
amor y paz <3

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

day 88: impromptu charlas

Today was an interesting day. It started off with me washing my clothes and realizing I need to buy clothespins because there just isn't enough in this house for my clothes and their clothes. Then, I had a meeting at the school my host sis attends. I was supposed to meet basically a leadership club yesterday, but stayed a bit longer in trujillo after my sis told me that the meeting was moved to tuesday morning. Yesterday, however, was the day of the school's anniversary. There were dances, music, and all the first year boys had their heads shaved.

Yup, you heard me right.

It's tradition that all the first year boys get buzz cuts, and the girls have their faces painted blue. Sadly, I missed it, but when I showed up this morning, all the boys had on hats and they, along with the girls, were teasing each other by stealing hats of the other boys. Today, the day after, is when the entire school takes the day to clean. Students wipe down windows, help sweep floors, and so forth. Unfortunately, this meant a rather disorganized morning and I showed up at 9, didn't see my sis until 10:15, and left at 10:45 once we decided that this meeting was definitely not happening...

So I went home, until my host mom invited me to the municipality because she needed to run a few errands. I never turn down a chance to go to the municipality, just because I want to make sure the people there know my face. I happened to run into a kid named Carlos who lives up in Guadalupe (another site, with another volunteer) and my mom invited him to lunch. This kid is awesome and I really wish he was from San Pedro so that I could work with him more closely, but he has his own projects and I'm hoping Slack (the other volunteer) finds time to work with him.

So kid goes with me to eat lunch and my sis is there. I remind her that we're expected at another school to meet one of her friends because this friend recently asked me to assist her with a charla (literally, a "chat" but more like a fun lecture). Then Carlos looks at me and asks if I know what the charla will be on. I have no idea. I assumed that I'd be doing more things about cultural exchange because she had asked me to do this charla during my interview on the radio, when the theme was intercultural exchange. He warned me that I should call her and know for sure, because she has done crazy things before. So I call and leave her with a text. I'm supposed to be at this meeting at 4pm; she calls me at 4:10pm and asks where I am.

"I was waiting for your call! What do I need to talk about?"
"Ok, I'm waiting for you. You're going to be presenting the topic of Vocational Professsions."
"What"
"Yea! I have to go, but please get here soon!"

So in a frenzy, I grab a stack of my books from the PC, knowing that there's something on this topic somewhere and lo and behold! bam- papers entitled "orientación vocacional." I read frantically, pouring through the topics and skimming through the instructions, trying to figure out how to pull together a 30 min. charla on this theme. Carlos and my sis are both trying to help me, advising me to focus less on the fact that the educational system in Perú is different from the states, and more on the things that are in common, like needing to be motivated and having goals.

I decide to chuck the book for now and go with what they say. Carlos accompanies me, although my sis was supposed to originally because she says she can't leave her little brother alone (at this point, mom and dad have both left the house). I'm nearly 95% certain she just didn't want to leave, since she had been moaning and grumbling about having to go since I reminded her that she had agreed to help her friend this morning, and I know that her brother has been home by himself before without issue... change that 95% to 99.9%

So Carlos accompanies me and we arrive at this school, my brain having spent the past 30 minutes trying to come up with what to do, without having a single clue as to who I'd be speaking with, what my resources would be, how many would be attending, etc.

"Sue! Thanks for coming! So, you're actually going to be giving a charla on self-esteem. Let me introduce you to the directora."

Wait. What? What happened to the chat I was supposed to give on vocational orientation??

It went out the window. I was introduced to the director before I went to the classroom and stood in front of roughly 55 students. She introduces me and explains what I'll be discussing. Carlos has been roped into giving a talk on leadership, but he has given that talk before. I rack my brain and realize all the dinámicas I know off the bat for self-esteem require people to move around and talk, which are both terrible terrible things when the classroom is so packed, there's less than a foot between me and the kids seated up front. So I decided that I'm going to, literally, chat.

I introduce myself, ask how they're doing, and then discuss self-esteem. What do they think it is, why do they think it's important, and so forth. I had them talk to their neighbors to discuss a few things, had 2 students come up front and help write ideas and suggestions on the board about how to raise and lower self-esteem, and then ended by asking them to turn to their neighbor and ask questions about them and give compliments. They reported that they were quite happy by the end of the charla, and then Carlos took over and gave his chat.

Don't know what I did, but it seemed to work. The girl I was helping out thanked me and asked if I could give these charlas every week. I asked her to please tell me the topic and my audience beforehand, and she agreed. Although I don't think I will have much control on the kinds of things she wants me to lecture on, I'm going to work with her on trying to figure out an agenda, once she figures out exactly what is going on (this was her very first attempt at this as well).

All in all, it turned out pretty well. This is a small pueblo that exists outside of my site, and I'd rather be working in it, but the girls I was working with is super motivated and doesn't know Slack. I'm going to help her as much as possible, and this also gives me the chance to travel around and get to know my province a bit. Hopefully things I do on site don't conflict with my time with her, but if they do, I'll have to figure things out then, I supposed.

Also, did you notice that I wrote this using capital letters? I'm going to try not being lazy and being a bit more  correct... I think I'm picking up some bad habits from chatting with teen Peruvians on facebook, and I'd like to continue practicing my english. (I am also forgetting words in english and it's bothering me...)

Lastly, I'm slowly but surely decorating my room. Currently, I'm using all the letters I have received (three!) like posters : D I love them up on my wall!

So keep writing me things and rest assured, I have letters to post the next time I'm in Trujillo and around a post office!

Peace and Love.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

day 85: i'm on the radio!

that's right kittens, i have completed 2 radio interviews so far, both of them today!

the group of kids i know right now do a radio show every saturday that's aired online on mondays. their program comes from a radio broadcast known as san sebastian, who is the patron saint of education (according to the man who runs it, but i'm pretty sure he's the patron saint of athletes, like endurance and energy... but who knows. i'll google it later). every week, the kids do a small talk on different subjects that vary, from topics like bullying to environment.

this week, i'm the topic.
well, actually, intercultural exchange is the topic but i'm always happy to talk about peace corps and what i'm doing, cause the more people who know- the better!

so we did a small interview, i watched them do their thing an was highly entertained. immediately afterwards, another woman who has a program every morning took me aside and asked if she could do another interview with me for her program, which i immediately agreed to! all in all, i had a great time and i'm really excited to work with these kids! they're energetic, smart, and really interested in getting themselves into the community.

after that, i ran home for a fast lunch and then ran to the church to talk to a group of youth that i will be working with from now on. we played a few dinamicas, like human knot, red light/green light, and duck duck EAGLE (pata, pata, águila... i don't know how to say goose, so i don't say it...) which was great. i also just chatted with them for a bit about what kinds of things they'd like to do. of course, they just told me anything fun would suffice. however, they're a group of kids from the church but i do not plan on doing anything religious so i'll talk to the father there and see what he wants me to do with them. i'm going to work on creating a syllabus of things that might be good for them to know. as of right now, the plan is to meet on saturdays, but i can't go every saturday because there will be days i'll be in trujillo, so i'll do what i can for now.

as for next saturday, i think i'm going to start with teaching them things from different parts of the world. i realized that this is something they don't really go into too much in their schools. they have geography, but it focuses more on the technical aspects and less on the culture. at the end, i'd like to do the world map with them, but i gotta talk to the alcalde about that, see if i can take this new foyer thing that he had built and use it for a big picture of the world!

that's all i have for now, but i'mma leave you with a few things i learned today:
1. drivers in perú are insane. like, legit, certified, insane. mototaxis will play chicken with one another and when one guy loses, he'll just yell at the winner like the winner is just a terrible driver or something. this isn't new to me. what is new, is that although part of me is unconsciously gripping the seat for dear life, the other part of me is really really hoping my mototaxi wins. i didn't notice this until this morning, when my mototaxist DID win and i couldn't help but smile and mentally pump my fist into the air and give the guy a high five. what? what is wrong with me. i almost died. but still, my guy won...

2. travelling anywhere depends on if you know how to hitchhike. for example, i went to chepen today, which is about 20 min away from my site. this required my sister and me jumping onto a travel bus and getting to sit up front, but still paying about $1 each to go. seriously. i got to sit up front by the gigantoid windows. it was awesome. except they were like, you look just like keiko (former presidential candidate... former japanese presidential candidate) and i was like... noooooo~ i'm korean! korean i say! and they respond by laughing and asking me about the states. pretty chill.

3. when i put my hair up into a tight bun and walk around, ppl generally ignore me. my bun was askew, so i let my hair down for maybe 4 or 5 seconds to fix it and in that time, i got piropos (cat calls) thrown at me by random guys. seriously?? that's the first time in these 2 weeks i've gotten a piropo in my own site! i'm pretty sure they're not from san pedro, i think they were the guys working on the sewer system that has been going on lately in the streets. seriously though, these guys have no taste and will whistle at anything remotely female. blecky.

4. i've gained weight. sigh... new it was happening but damn, annoying. i'll be running in the mornings and tomorrow i'm going to go into trujillo to buy a few things, like resistance bands. and a guitar, if i can find one! but yea, definitely resistance bands. a year of having a trainer and going to the gym without fail, every single day is being ruined! ruined i say! also, i haven't found the gym here. it's definitely around, cause i went to it a few weeks ago, i just don't remember where...

whatever. it'll be fine!
until next time my dears,

love and peace.